Getting bagelled and still winning!

[split-step]

Have you ever gotten bagelled in a match and still won?

I did just that today and I am SO proud of myself.

I had a match with one of my hitting partners today, who I kind of have a rivalry with. During the warmup, I was seeing the ball well and hitting great.

First set comes and I was groundstroking well but I lost my rhythm on serve. I couldn't get a first serve in and my opponent simply outplayed me.
First set 0-6

I calmed myself and focused intently on the ball. I was in the zone.

I started holding and returning much better. At 3-4 in the second set, me serving, I hit an angled cross court forehand winner and my opponent called it out. I was so calm that I shook it off immediately. I held the game anyway and broke my opponent the next game and served it out in style.
Second set 6-4

There was no let down for me. I kept my intensity up and continued to play my game. I started getting more comfortable playing my game, and started constructing points, coming to net, hitting slices, lobs, hard groundstrokes.
Soon I was up a double break serving for the set at 5-2. At this point, I choked even though it didn't feel like it. Got the yips on the serve and was broken at love.
I broke my opponent back the next service game
Third set 6-3

Final tally: split-step 0-6, 6-4, 6-3
(My opponent won more games than I did lol)

I haven't been this happy after a win in a LONG time.

 

[Rickson]

Have you ever gotten bagelled in a match and still won?

I did just that today and I am SO proud of myself.

I had a match with one of my hitting partners today, who I kind of have a rivalry with. During the warmup, I was seeing the ball well and hitting great.

First set comes and I was groundstroking well but I lost my rhythm on serve. I couldn't get a first serve in and my opponent simply outplayed me.
First set 0-6

I calmed myself and focused intently on the ball. I was in the zone.

I started holding and returning much better. At 3-4 in the second set, me serving, I hit an angled cross court forehand winner and my opponent called it out. I was so calm that I shook it off immediately. I held the game anyway and broke my opponent the next game and served it out in style.
Second set 6-4

There was no let down for me. I kept my intensity up and continued to play my game. I started getting more comfortable playing my game, and started constructing points, coming to net, hitting slices, lobs, hard groundstrokes.
Soon I was up a double break serving for the set at 5-2. At this point, I choked even though it didn't feel like it. Got the yips on the serve and was broken at love.
I broke my opponent back the next service game
Third set 6-3

Final tally: split-step 0-6, 6-4, 6-3
(My opponent won more games than I did lol)

I haven't been this happy after a win in a LONG time.

Congrats on a hard fought win. You made a good point about staying cool because that could have cost you big time. You just found the key to success in tennis. Keep a cool head when your opponent makes a bad call.

 

[split-step]

Congrats on a hard fought win. You made a good point about staying cool because that could have cost you big time. You just found the key to success in tennis. Keep a cool head when your opponent makes a bad call.

Thanks man. I am so stoked. And you are absolutely correct about keeping cool. I have lost matches because I got angry over netcords not to mention bad calls.

I get frustrated easily which is why I am SO proud of myself for being able to stay focused and fight for the win.

 

[NotAtTheNet]

Big props, that takes some real mental focus. I don't think I've ever come back from being that far down... I would just call it quits after the 1st set. I played a match last night without warming up at all and my groundstrokes were all flying out (trying to power winners on every shot). I was down 2-4 (won some sets due to aces, and serve blasts). I eventually decided on my serve to tap them in, so I could get some warm ups on some his easy return shots (he spent the rest of the set expecting blasts so we was out of position). I ended up losing the 1st set 3-6, but there was a great 17 ball rally at the end of the set which solidified my trust in my groundstrokes again. I went on to go balls out on my serve and groundstrokes and took the 2nd set 6-1 and the 3rd set 6-2. Not quite the accomplishment you did though!

 

[VGP]

I've heard it said (perhaps by Tracy Austin):

"Beware of the 6-0 or 6-1 set....."

More often than not, the player that loses the set badly will relax and rebound.

 

[split-step]

Thanks guys.
The 2nd and 3rd set were much closer than the score indicates. All but one of my service games in the 2nd set went to duece while my opponent was holding at love or 15.
I made some tactical adjustments. He was serving AMAZING first and second serves and I was making errors returning too aggressively. So I decided to take a bit off the return and focus on getting the return in and deep.
THis changed everything because now I was playing more points off his serve which is what eventually allowed me to break.

The third set, I broke early and was serving at 2-1. We had the longest game of the match here. I believe we had about 10 duece points. There were several gamepoints and breakpoints all denied until he finally broke. Mind you we would have long rallies each point.
I was SOO tired at this point but so was my opponent and he wasn't serving quite as big as he had been the entire match so now I could return aggressively and I broke back for the 3-2 lead.
Again I had a LONG service game with several dueces but eventually held for 4-2.

 

[Nellie]

I wish I had the smarts (and game) to change tatics. I am all about the forward charge, but sometimes, people just have more heat.

 

[mucat]

Great match split-step!!

How did your opponent take it?

 

[Alexio92]

Won a match 7 - 5 (I had 3 set points at 5 - 1) 0 - 6 6 - 3 two weeks ago, and in a matchplay I won 0 - 6 6 - 1 (TB : 10 - 3).

I also won a match 6 - 4 and came back from 0 - 5 down in second set to win 7 - 5 if that counts.

 

[split-step]

Great match split-step!!

How did your opponent take it?

Thanks Mucat.

He didn't say much and his facial expression showed his disappointment but he took it well.

I just started a tennis journal and he expressed how it was cool my first match in the journal would be a win.

I wanted to explode after hitting the match winning forehand especially since I had held everything in while concentrating, but I was very muted in my celebration. He can be a hothead after losses and we just had a tiff after I beat him in a mini set we played last week and I didn't want to deal with that again.

 

[swimntennis]

Nice job keeping your cool on the important points (other than the yips serving it out). I had a lot of trouble with that a couple of days ago at my tryouts. In my first service game, I was playing a real beginners team. The one guy was just completely out of it. I served what should have been two aces (my partner and I both saw it in by about half a foot) DTL but he called them both out without even looking at the ball. I got too frustrated, double faulted both times, and eventually got broken. We did go on to win 6-1 though, so I improved after that.

 

[luca85]

I remember at the end of summer county tournament i played a match against a highly rated guy. It was a good match but didnt play as well as i could have to beat him.

Anyway after this match i was a bit disappointed because i hadnt served well and if i had i may have had a better chance. When i came to play my second match of the day which was against a guy i had never beaten before i was amazed by how i started.

Normally i am a slow match starter but not today. I came out smashing winners all over the place. Hitting clean winners off the most ridiculous balls. I took the 1st set 6-1.

Then came out for the 2nd set and thought "right concetrate in these first couple of games" Next thing i knew i waws 5-0 down. I decided to focus on the 3rd so i lost the 2nd 6-0.

At the start of the 3rd i went 0-1 down. I had lost 7 games in a row. I had to turn this around to stay in the event. I ended up taking the 3rd set 6-1 and was over the moon.

I went on to win the event, it was a big week.

 

[quicken]

Have you ever gotten bagelled in a match and still won?

I did just that today and I am SO proud of myself.

I had a match with one of my hitting partners today, who I kind of have a rivalry with. During the warmup, I was seeing the ball well and hitting great.

First set comes and I was groundstroking well but I lost my rhythm on serve. I couldn't get a first serve in and my opponent simply outplayed me.
First set 0-6

I calmed myself and focused intently on the ball. I was in the zone.

I started holding and returning much better. At 3-4 in the second set, me serving, I hit an angled cross court forehand winner and my opponent called it out. I was so calm that I shook it off immediately. I held the game anyway and broke my opponent the next game and served it out in style.
Second set 6-4

There was no let down for me. I kept my intensity up and continued to play my game. I started getting more comfortable playing my game, and started constructing points, coming to net, hitting slices, lobs, hard groundstrokes.
Soon I was up a double break serving for the set at 5-2. At this point, I choked even though it didn't feel like it. Got the yips on the serve and was broken at love.
I broke my opponent back the next service game
Third set 6-3

Final tally: split-step 0-6, 6-4, 6-3
(My opponent won more games than I did lol)

I haven't been this happy after a win in a LONG time.

Dayum, thats what I like to call some ass whooping.

 

[fri]

I find myself in your opponent's situation a lot. Somehow, when it is the end of the games, I tend to find a way to lose the most important points. I either get easy wins which I cruise to the finish 6-1,6-2, or mostly lose if it is a close decisive set. If the opponent starts the comeback like you did, it is hard to push back for me mentally. I guess I need to work on keeping the nerve in that situation. The comeback kid usually wins the match. Congrats. Work on concentrating more at the start of the match, though. Try not to fall down 5-0.

 

[RoddickAce]

Congratulations!

 

[mucat]

It is one of the funny thing about tennis. You can lose more games and/or points but still win the match.

 

[Josherer]

YEP!!!

Tournament final!

Lost the first 0-6

Won the second 7-6 (10-8 ) He was serving for the match at 6-5

Won the third 7-6 (7-4)

Very Proud of myself!